Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) is one of the world's best-loved children's authors and illustrators. She wrote the majority of the twenty-three Original Peter Rabbit Books between 1901 and 1913. The Tale of Peter Rabbit (Frederick Warne, 1902) is her most famous and best-loved tale.

First published in America in February 1870, Edward Lear’s much loved rhyme of the owl and the pussy-cat appeared in England in time for Christmas 1870 as the opening song in Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany, and Alphabets (London: Robert John Bush, 1871). Beatrix Potter's father, Rupert, presented her with a copy of Lear's book as a Christmas present when she was four years old; it became a childhood favourite.

In the 1890s, when Potter began writing illustrated letters to amuse the children of her former governess, Annie Moore (neé Carter), she often referred to Lear's rhyme of the owl and the pussy-cat. In 1894, Potter wrote to Eric Moore, 'I have read about the owl & the pussy cat, who went to sea in a pea green boat, but I never saw anything of that kind till today'. In 1897, she produced illustrated versions of Lear's rhyme for Eric's older brother, Nöel, and for Molly Gaddum, the daughter of her cousin, Edith. In her letter to Molly, Potter remarks, 'It is very odd to see an owl with hands, but how could he play on the guitar without them?'

Before publishing her own stories, Potter illustrated fables, fairy tales and classic texts, such as Uncle Remus, Alice in Wonderland and The Owl and the Pussy-cat. She drew largely to amuse herself, or children she knew, but also to develop her illustrative technique. Her interpretations of these well-known texts are always fresh, original, and faithful to the true nature and appearance of animals. Her depiction of Lear's pussy-cat, for example, derives from her own, sardonic sense of humour - typically, the cat appears to be more interested in the fish than in the owl's guitar playing.

In The Tale of Little Pig Robinson (1930), the final book in the Peter Rabbit series, Potter pays homage to Lear's rhyme of the owl and the pussy-cat. Whilst on board the ship, Pound of Candles, Little Pig Robinson overhears the crew discussing roast pork and crackling. The ship's cat helps him escape to an island with a Bong tree. Potter concludes her story, 'I have never been there myself, so I rely upon the report of the Owl and the Pussy Cat, who visited it eighteen months later, and spent a delightful honeymoon there. They spoke enthusiastically about the climate - only it was a little too warm for the Owl'.

These rough sketches relate to an illustrated manuscript booklet of ‘The Owl and the Pussycat’, also in the Linder Bequest - museum no. BP.619(a).